Independent Women's Forum: 20 Million Could Lose Health Coverage Under ObamaCare
Sunday, March 18, 2012
According to the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office (CBO), as many as 20 million Americans could lose their health insurance that they have through their employers. "'President Obama's string of empty promises is quickly becoming a disappointing trail of broken promises,' House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) said in a statement. 'He promised Americans that his overhaul of the health care sector would not jeopardize the health coverage of those who liked what they had. As nonpartisan analysts made clear today, millions of Americans will soon learn the hard way that Washington's overreach into their health care decisions will result in sharp disruptions to their coverage and their care.'"
In commentary on Forbes, Merrill Matthews weighs in on the CBO's latest cost estimates. "No serious policy person ever believed the original CBO gross cost projection of $938 billion (over 10 years) made when the bill was rammed through Congress in March of 2010. Working to achieve an acceptable CBO 'score' (i.e., cost projection) is just part of the game Washington plays with legislation—and the American people. To begin with, the costs in the legislation were back-loaded: Many of the costs won’t emerge until the latter half of the initial 10-year projection, ending in 2019. And sure enough, when the CBO issued its update in March 2011 the 10-year gross cost projection through 2021 jumped to $1.44 trillion. The just-released 2012 projection tags the gross cost at $1.76 trillion through 2022—nearly twice the original cost. Surprise!"
The Hill reports that President Obama has changed his legal strategy in trying to defend ObamaCare. "The shift moves the focus of Justice’s argument from the Commerce Clause of the Constitution to the Necessary and Proper Clause, which says Congress can make laws that are necessary for carrying out its other powers The briefs give a long history of failed efforts to expand healthcare coverage and say the new law’s purpose was to reform the overall system."
source http://www.iwf.org/